Linaloo

Scrap flying farfalle quilt

This weekend I largely ignored all non-essential household chores, opting for a decent stint at the sewing machine instead.  I started work on a baby quilt for a friend due in November.

I've never really been one for holding onto stuff for a long time and I don't get emotionally attached to my possessions on the whole.  When it comes to fabric however, I seem to have a hard time getting rid of even the minutest of leftovers.  So a scrap quilt has been on my list for a while.  At first I had a go at some blocks for a string quilt using paper piecing, but it looked too busy for my taste. I'm not a minimalist by any means but I am drawn to clean white space in quilts.   Even if it is for a baby.

I finally settled on this pattern - inspired by Film in the Fridge's Flying Farfalle quilt, (love that name) making my "bowties" a little more obvious by matching the fabric.

It's all pieced but now I'm having a quilting quandry. Ashley quilted hers using diagonal lines,framing the bowties beautifully, but it turns out mine are a bit too large to do this. So now I can't decide how to quilt it...apart from the safe but possibly slightly dull option of in the ditch. 

Suggestions?

Twig vase

Inspired by this Nini Makes tutorial, I made this little vase earlier this year. We have lots of trees in our back garden and an endless supply of fallen twigs and branches, so this was a perfect green project with absolutely no purchase necessary.  My kind of crafting.

 
I have seen similar ideas using hot glue, but I prefer the idea of holding everything together with twine. 

I maybe getting a little ahead of myself here, but I'm thinking the children could make this pretty easily and they'd make wondeful gifts, embellished with some red ribbon and planted wih paperwhites for Christmas. 

Perfect

A perfect weekend spent with friends at their lakeside cottage in Tremblant. We hiked, kayaked, played, laughed, ate, drank and slept well.  

In real life (!) I've been finding it hard to get back into the swing of anything now that the children are back in school. Two children doing homework almost every night is totally kicking my behind and crafting projects have been put on the backburner until things hopefully settle down. 

Summer's final fling

I've lost track of how many pictures I have of this boy in the water this year.

We've had a heat wave here this past few days.  The children went back to school with temperatures in the mid thirties and our much loved pool has been kept open a few extra days.  Usually at the beginning of September, I'm looking forward to the change of season, picking apples, making soup and enjoying the crisp morning air on the walk to school. Instead we've been eating salad, using the barbecue and turning on the air con in the house. 

Regardless of the weather, thoughts of food this time of year are rarely out of mind. 

I'm hoping that I'll spend the day canning tomatoes again soon (we only just ran out of last year's supply).  

I really want to make this soup.  To see if I can't persuade my children that fresh is better than tinned.

Corn is abundance at our local market.  $1.99 for 10.  There's nothing quite like the really fresh stuff. We're big corn eaters here and I'm always looking for new recipes.  Last night we ate Menonite Corn Salad with quinoa rather than barley.  Yum.

Since coming back from the UK where my mum made lovely homemade bread, I've dug out my breadmaker from the basement and started making a loaf every other day. So tasty.

Oh and there's always the return of the dreaded school lunch box...I find packing something interesting and nutritious every day such a chore.  Thinking of buying these for the children to ease the burden on my exploding tupperware cupboard...